Rough Days, but out of ICU

It's easy to get frustrated that he's still in A LOT of pain...then you have to step back and think, it was ONLY 5 days ago that he had the riskiest surgery out there.  Today some of the nurses were questioning the quantity of his pain meds (and little wife almost went off, but I contained myself - I'm proud) and the surgeon said it best to them, "Hello, he just had a double lung transplant.  I wrote the orders, give it to him."  He's had a rough few days, and I know that it is to be expected, but it is so hard to see him in pain and feeling absolutely miserable.  If you know Graham, he, for the most part, hates relying on people.  He has forced himself to rely on me, but feels guilty when he involves others.  He'll go without eating or will just watch the chic flick on the TV just so he doesn't have to ask the nurse to do one more thing.  I'm slowly changing his thinking, because he HAS to rely on others, HE CAN'T MOVE!!!
But through all the pain, he still continues to progress.  He had 2 of his chest tubes taken out today.  Dr Meyer, the surgeon, came in and did a few snips of the sutchers and told him to breathe in and out twice then hold his breath and push...THEN HE YANKED THE FIRST ONE OUT!  Graham held onto my hand so tight out of nervousness!  Then the 2nd one was pulled, and barely a grip.  Dr. Meyer looked at him and said, "People normally squeal."  I told you, Graham IS NOT normal.  Such a fighter!
He also removed his Litocaine packs that were topical pain meds connected right under his skin.  Slowly but surely he is losing all of his tubing.  Yesterday, another doctor changed out his IVs in his neck.  Reduced it from 6 (or so) lines down to 3.  The more they remove, the better he feels.  His swelling is up in his arms and is back down to not being able to feed himself.  But that's what I'm here for, and will be there for him until the end.
Graham also got moved up into a regular room today...that helps him out BIG TIME mentally.  Nothing like a change in environment.  It's also quieter, maybe he can finally get some rest.